Kitty
GPU-accelerated, cross-platform terminal emulator with built-in tabs, splits, and extensions called kittens.
HN commenters like Kitty for built-in kittens such as hints, diff and SSH,123 for scriptable remote control and native sessions that can replace tmux,456 and for its terminal graphics support.78 The most common complaints are that setup happens entirely in config files and that it looks poor on macOS,9101112 with some reports of font rendering trouble and crashes in the Debian package.13
Why people recommend it
Built-in kittens · 3
Built-in tools like hints mode, diff, and kitten ssh are valued enough to keep users from switching.
“Kitty's hints mode[1] is the one feature keeping me from switching from Kitty to Ghostty”
“kitty terminal has diff like this builtin”
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“I still use Kitty, especially for SSH connections.”
Scriptability · 3
Commenters build workflows on its remote control protocol and full scriptability.
“embracing the total scriptability of my favorite terminal, Kitty”
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“I want to keep my existing workflow in Kitty and tmux/zellij”
Won-over switchers · 3
Users who moved from Terminal.app, Konsole, or Ghostty say they did not look back.
“kitty was what got me off Terminal.app and I think it's not given enough love around here.”
“For that reason I switched to Kitty a couple of years ago when I was transitioning to neovim I'm have not looked back since.”
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“I've moved back to Kitty and now I wonder why I ever left!”
Speed · 2
Commenters report it as much faster than Konsole and as starting instantly in single-instance mode.
“kitty was many times faster than Konsole and Ghostty even faster.”
“Kitty has the single instance feature and starts instantly with it.”
Terminal graphics · 2
Its graphics protocol lets users view images and plots in tools like Yazi and the Julia REPL.
“I run Kitty and use this feature regularly.”
“I've been pushing Kitty terminal graphics compositing”
Built-in sessions · 2
Native sessions and tab management replace tmux for some users.
“I decided to move to Kitty and use its built-in sessions instead.”
“i miss kitty's way of doing stuff”
Caveats and dissent
Config-file setup · 2
Nearly everything must be configured in a config file, and tab customization needed Python.
“I've tried Kitty and Alacritty but the fact that you have to dive into the config file for everything”
macOS appearance · 2
Commenters say it doesn't look good on Mac and wish for a better macOS icon.
If you’re fine using iTerm just use iTerm. In my case I used iTerm for years and kinda liked it, but not completely. I’d been looking for an alternative for years but couldn’t find one I like (Alacritty doesn’t support pane splitting, Wezterm has full code config which I hate, Kitty doesn’t look good on Mac, Terminal.app is dog slow…). Ghostty just fits my needs pretty much exactly.
“I've moved back to Kitty and now I wonder why I ever left!”
Font rendering · 1
One user could not get consistent font rendering across screens with different pixel densities.
Stability · 1
One user had crashes with the Debian package, though it later became stable.
Not fastest · 3
Some found Ghostty faster or returned to lighter terminals, and one latency benchmark placed Kitty mid-pack.
“kitty was many times faster than Konsole and Ghostty even faster.”
I was curious to see what the actual latency was, so I used Pavel Fatin's https://pavelfatin.com/typometer/. Notes: This system is running Arch, with kernel 7.0.3, scx_bpfland, and i3 on X11. Primary GPU is an integrated Intel GPU. Using picom: Terminal Min Max Avg SD alacritty 20.1 111.4 43.8 18.0 xfce4-terminal 19.1 112.5 49.1 17.9 xterm 12.3 152.6 53.1 26.4 wezterm 28.3 106.0 56.2 15.4 kitty 25.3 115.9 57.2 18.5 g
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“I have tried other terminal emulators as well (kitty, for example)”
Often compared with
1 moved from Ghostty to Kitty
6 moved from Kitty to Ghostty
2 moved from Konsole to Kitty
1 moved from tmux to Kitty
1 moved from Kitty to tmux
1 moved from Zellij to Kitty
1 moved from Kitty to Zellij
1 moved from Terminal.app to Kitty
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Ghostty 1.4 8 mentions
- Show HN: Saggar, a Mac terminal that keeps sessions and your attention organized 2 mentions
- No new Ghostty updates since March 1 mention
- A third way of using Linux 1 mention
- Closing Canario Terminal source code 1 mention
- Show HN: Shitty – fast terminal. Memory-unsafe and faster than yours 1 mention
Also written as kitty. Data: kitty.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 25
“kitty was what got me off Terminal.app and I think it's not given enough love around here.”
“I've had various crashes with Kitty's Debian package”
“I have tried other terminal emulators as well (kitty, for example)”
“For that reason I switched to Kitty a couple of years ago when I was transitioning to neovim I'm have not looked back since.”
If you’re fine using iTerm just use iTerm. In my case I used iTerm for years and kinda liked it, but not completely. I’d been looking for an alternative for years but couldn’t find one I like (Alacritty doesn’t support pane splitting, Wezterm has full code config which I hate, Kitty doesn’t look good on Mac, Terminal.app is dog slow…). Ghostty just fits my needs pretty much exactly.
“Kitty's hints mode[1] is the one feature keeping me from switching from Kitty to Ghostty”
“kitty was many times faster than Konsole and Ghostty even faster.”
“kitty was the only one that covered most of my needs without feeling like it suffers from random quirks”
“I've moved back to Kitty and now I wonder why I ever left!”
“I've been pushing Kitty terminal graphics compositing”
“Kitty is great too”
“I want to keep my existing workflow in Kitty and tmux/zellij”
“because I love cool retro terminal and kitty”
“Kitty has the single instance feature and starts instantly with it.”
“I decided to move to Kitty and use its built-in sessions instead.”
“embracing the total scriptability of my favorite terminal, Kitty”
“I've tried Kitty and Alacritty but the fact that you have to dive into the config file for everything”
“Kitty has remote protocol.”
I was curious to see what the actual latency was, so I used Pavel Fatin's https://pavelfatin.com/typometer/. Notes: This system is running Arch, with kernel 7.0.3, scx_bpfland, and i3 on X11. Primary GPU is an integrated Intel GPU. Using picom: Terminal Min Max Avg SD alacritty 20.1 111.4 43.8 18.0 xfce4-terminal 19.1 112.5 49.1 17.9 xterm 12.3 152.6 53.1 26.4 wezterm 28.3 106.0 56.2 15.4 kitty 25.3 115.9 57.2 18.5 g
“I use Kitty terminal emulator, I have 4 tabs open.”
“i miss kitty's way of doing stuff”
“I still use Kitty, especially for SSH connections.”
“kitty terminal has diff like this builtin”
“I highly recommend making the last program in your .xinitrc be a terminal emulator rather than Emacs”
“I run Kitty and use this feature regularly.”